Do something DIFFERENT: frequent advice for expanding your mind, experimenting with ideas or forms, or...for some famous 'Moderns', moving to Paris.

In one sense, being an Artist In Residence at the Benedictine Monastery of St. Gertrude's in Idaho is gonna shake up my regular (non-Christian) world. But from the words of those who live in community there, "In prayer and creativity we take the risk of opening ourselves up, of listening, of being transformed and offering our gifts on behalf of the world."

The monastery's life also includes its working landscape, where members and friends "experience an interconnectedness with the land and recognize our responsibility to reverence and care for the resources it provides." Here at home, i harvested my first raspberries yesterday, on the same day as their annual Raspberry Festival fundraiser. We're already connected--even though the residency they have awarded me won't start until November. Time now to consider the appropriate project of focus...